Court awards compensation to families of Mari victims

The family of fire sergeant Andreas Papadopoulos who was killed in the 2011 Mari Naval blast which killed 13 people will be given €628,000 in compensation in addition to €380,000 the family already received, a Larnaca court has ruled.

The court also decided on compensation for the relatives of firefighter Panayiotis Theofilos and warrant officer Kleanthis Kleanthous who were killed in the blast.

The wife and three children of Papadopoulos who was 44 when he was killed had already received €380,000 from the state in August 2011. Papadopoulos’ daughters were aged 7, 13 and 15 at the time. However, the court decided “the payment of €380,000 did not concern payment which the applicants were entitled either by law or on the basis of an insurance or other contract.”

The court case was filed by his spouse, saying that with the death of her husband she and her children “have lost the support of a husband and father.” The statement was not contested by the Republic and the court granted the compensation in addition to the money which had been awarded by the state earlier on.

The court accepted that the Republic was responsible for the death of Andreas Papadopoulos, who was on duty in the early hours of July 11, 2011 at the naval base ‘Evangelos Florakis’ in Mari, where 98 containers of munitions stored in the open for two and a half years exploded, killing 13 and destroying the main power station at Vassiliko.

“The Republic has shown criminal disregard for the lives of persons, including Andreas,” President of the Court Harris Malachtou said.

Based on the evidence the court noted that “it shows unequivocally and categorically that the Republic of Cyprus has grossly violated its obligation under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to protect the life of the deceased Andreas Papadopoulos.”

The court pointed out that in this case the “Republic of Cyprus in possession of a dangerous cargo proceeded in storing it in an inappropriate way that increased its risk. The storage method was an essential element that over time further increased the risk.”

In the case of Panayiotis Theofilos, who was unmarried and 30 years old at the time of his death, the court ruled that apart from the sum of €95,000 received by his family in 2011 his relatives were entitled to a compensation of €152,000.

The lawsuit was filed by Theofilos’ parents and sister and his father testified during the trial, referring to the pain and suffering caused by the death of his son to himself, his mother and his sister.

The family of warrant officer Kleanthis Kleanthous, 51 in 2011, also filed a lawsuit. In addition to €285,000 which is wife and two children got in 2011 they will be handed the sum of €302,000. At the time of his death his daughter was 25 and his son was 17.

In all cases the Republic accepted full responsibility for the deaths.

The amounts are payable with interest and the Republic is required to pay the legal expenses of the families. According to state radio, another nine cases will be brought before the court in the next few days.

In early 2009 Cyprus had seized a cargo of nearly 100 munitions containers from the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk that was en route to Syria from Iran in violation of a UN Security Council resolution.

The containers were subsequently left to boil under the sun at the Mari naval base for two years until the munitions eventually exploded on July 11, 2011, killing seven sailors and six firemen who were trying to put out the fires that broke out at the storage site.

I’m glad the families got the money but Catastrophias and his party cronies are responsible for paying it. It’s the least they can do given that they have not had to face criminal charges and consequences. How do those dead beats sleep at night? Don’t their consciences torment them?? People died on their ‘watch’, as a result of their incompetence!!

Barry White

They sleep like babies every night. Their training in Moscow started each day with “No Care, No Responsibility”.

Neroli

Please everyone who will be voting at the weekend remember this tragedy!

Jay Bee

A timely and appropriate suggestion………

The trouble is, many of the electorate ( incl. most of my AKEL-centric village) steadfastly refuse to accept the truth and will not apportion any blame to Christofias. To them, he is without guilt…….

divadi bear

Jay Bee
You are so right ! They won’t even accept the verdict of The HIgh Judges and experts who decreed his guilt.

Jay Bee

I feel immense frustration and anger, so cannot imagine just how the bereaved families must feel………….. My heart and thoughts still go out to them and always will.

Truly massive injustice, on an unprecedented scale.

Just sickening.

No_Name12

Yes. But remember it correctly. Remember that it was Christofias that made the political decisions that led to this tragedy, remember that DIKO was in government and sitting at the council of ministers when decisions were taken, but left the government after Mari to avoid the blame, remember that the media and the opposition parties blamed everything on Christofias in order to win votes and cover up the share of responsibility by the National Guard, remember that the parliamentary group for the military, where all the parties take part, never made one comment about the containers until they exploded, when their job was checking upon the military.

I say all these because everyone remembers Christofias, as if a single individual is responsible. Mari was in part the result of faulty decisions by the president, it was also the result of institutional failure, in other words, the mistakes and mismanagement of the containers go way deep in the state’s structure. Assign the appropriate blame to Christofias, sure, but do not forget how many other individuals, parties and government institutions were involved in the mistaken choices, the mishandling of the containers, and the failure of regulating the whole situation.

Andreas Louca

Justice has tyet to be done in the Mari case . The state was held responsible , thus Christofias which was head of the state , is by this decision held responsible and should be put on Trial.

divadi bear

Andreas Louca
I and, I am sure, many hundrreds more living on Cyprus, completely agree with you.
He, ex-President Christofias should also be paying this compensation, plus the amounts already paid, to the bereaved, not the State !
Instead, he is a free man enjoying a super inflated pension with numerous Perks paid by the State, still operating within the political-body here, even though he declared he was “retiring” from his political life !!!
He is a disgrace and a blight on the name of Cyprus and it’s people and to add insult to injury, the taxpayer is expected to pay further for his mis-deeds !

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